Back in the USSR -- Exiled artists return home

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, March 19, 2009

When SoNo artist Gennady Shikariov, formally of St. Petersburg, Russia, was led onboard an airplane by armed Soviet guards with his wife and young son in 1979, he never thought he would return home.

But last month, he went back to receive praise for his art, 30 years after being exiled for his artistic expression.

His wife, Tatyana Mamonova -- also an artist, was publishing a samizdat (Russian suppressed literature) about the underground women's movement in Russia, and Shikariov had been illustrating the publication. Both were warned by government officials to stop their activities. They did not obey those orders.

The couple's satiric paintings and drawings of mythical and other worldly characters hovering above Russian cityscapes were popular among foreign diplomats visiting the country. They were exhibited at the Kustarney, the Gaza Cultural Center, the Nevsky Cultural Center and the Vadim Nechaev -- all in Leningrad, as well as at various galleries in Moscow. But the irreverent nature of their art was not government approved and in conjunction with the samizdat, the nose thumbing of authority evidently went one step too far.

The first action taken by the government was to shut down their art exhibits and cart the canvases away to the Kremlin. But new canvases were painted, and the two began showing them publicly at their St. Petersburg (then named Leningrad) apartment. The handmade samizdats kept being churned out as well, with copies smuggled out of the country by visiting diplomats.

The Soviet government countered by seizing the couple's apartment and threatened them with the Gulag (the government agency that administered the penal labor camps) in Siberia. Family members were also threatened but, again, the warnings fell on deaf ears.

Then, on a frigid winter morning, KGB agents arrived unannounced, dragged the couple and their son Phillipe out of bed, and hauled them off to meet their fate. The date was Dec. 10 -- Mamonova's birthday and, ironically, International Human Rights Day. The storyline was too juicy for the foreign media to resist -- they arrived in clusters and gathered outside of the government building where the trio was being held before their scheduled deportation to Siberia.

The Kremlin went into lockdown mode.

However, Moscow had just been named as the site for the 1980 Summer Olympic games and General Secretary Brezhnev didn't want any bad press ruining it. Furthermore, because the Soviet newspapers had labeled Mamonova "the most dangerous woman in the USSR," Brezhnev was concerned she might be able to organize prisoners in the Gulag to revolt against guards.

The general secretary made an executive decision -- the family was to be stripped of their citizenship and all personal belongings, and then exiled to Vienna, Austria.

They drifted among Vienna, Berlin and Paris during the 1980s, finally receiving political asylum in France. In Paris, an anthology of Mamonova's samizdat titled Femmes et Russie was published. She was later invited to the United States to teach at Harvard University with the help of Gloria Steinem. The samizdat was published as "Women and Russia" in the U.S.

"Brezhnev figured we could not survive stateless in a foreign country, but he was wrong," recalled Mamonova, who currently resides in Manhattan where she continues to publish her samizdat -- now an almanac in English and Russian titled "Woman & Earth." She is still stateless.

Shikariov began to concentrate on graphic and architectural design work, with a focus on book illustration. He and Mamonova illustrated the children's book, "I Remember," published by Clarion Books. He also illustrated Mamonova's later books and almanacs.

But the artist misses his native city and waxes nostalgic about his days there.

"I am a native of St. Petersburg," said Shikariov. "Living in the city for so many years left a permanent impression on my life and work as an artist. Perhaps the greatest gift it provided was the Hermitage Museum, which I visited practically every day as a child. Lately, I have been painting in watercolor and actually prefer it to oil. I am experiencing a freedom in my painting for the first time in my life."

Now a permanent resident of the United States and applying for U.S. citizenship, Shikariov has traveled like a gypsy exhibiting his artwork. He's had shows at the Kristina Hartman, in Vienna; Frauen Café Winterfeldt, in West Berlin; Gallery Quotidiano Donna, in Milan; Voltaire 76, in Paris; Ginza Gallery, in Tokyo; Gallery Sisterwrite, in London; Abidjan Centre, on the Ivory Coast; Shimko's Signatures, in Los Angeles and at many other galleries, worldwide.

He has been able to visit Russia three times since his exile -- in 1997, in 2003 and last month, when Shikariov returned to St. Petersburg to exhibit his paintings at Nevsky Palace. The occasion was that Mamonova had been named Woman of the Year by the Vishnevskaya Association -- one of the city's most prestigious societies. This time, the government had no issues with Shikariov's artwork.

At the ceremony honoring her, Mamonova addressed an audience of about 200 with an acceptance speech entitled "Biorhythms of Freedom."

Shikariov has noticed many changes in his homeland since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Gorbachev's Perestroika.

"My first trip to Russia from America was devastating," said Shikariov. "My native city of St. Petersburg looked ruined. When I returned there again, I saw it in all glory -- repaired, painted and with a happy face of the new shops and restaurants."

But when he went back this last time, the city was familiar in a way that was not quite so comforting.

"My most recent trip left me with a scary feeling of revival of Stalinism," he said. "Propaganda of Stalin on TV and in the media as a 'great ruler' along with the Orthodox Church being 'the savior' of Russia is maleficent."

And what about Mamonova being named Woman of the Year in the city they were both expelled from 30 years ago?